[Scotfan]

Tello tribe!
I am a newbie here and I desperately need help on a 8820 GPS. I bought the phone on e-bay locked to Orange UK. On REFRESH the GPS, without any Sim card worked just fine. Then I unlocked it and put a O2 Sim card in, though I have not yet opened a data plan with them, so I'm using it as a plain phone. Sometime in-between, the GPS ceased working. It either tells me: "location update failed" or doesn't react to REFRESH at all and it keeps the position from 31st December, when I played with it the last time, before I unlocked it. Can the malfunction have anything to do with unlocking and putting a third party SIM card in or is it independent issue, and how can I fix it? I understood that this GPS is service-independent. It's so important to me that if I am unable to fix it, I'll have to replace the phone.
Regards all
Scotfan

[Cory Scheuer]

1, you need a data plan for the GPS to work properly... the GPS needs the data connection to work... it needs to update the maps to locate you on it (needs data to do so) and uses the cell towers to help trigulate your position better

2. No unlocking and using a third party SIM card will not cause this issue... one thing that i have noticed with the BBs and GPS is you cannot be standing in one location and try to connect to GPS... you need to be moving, like walking or in a car moving... otherwise it doesnt connect to satellites... its wierd... i thought i had a issue with my GPS on my 8900, so i went to exchange it due to hardware issues, and we tested 4 different devices(mine 8900, and brand new out of box 8900, a bold, a 8310)... while standing there NONE of them connected to any satellites...


so you need a data plan for it to work and try moving around like taking a walk around the block while its connecting... remember this is NOT a GPS unit, its a phone(its main function along with emailing) and then GPS as a feature...

[Scotfan]

Thanks Cory
I haven't graduated to maps yet - at this moment I was just happy with coordinates, which my BB GPS was providing quite efficiently. Having received your reply I drove some 10 miles away from home and tried to refresh the GPS position. It didn't even try to find the satellites. Just no reaction whatsoever - it's stuck on a position I played with it at on the New Year's eve. I didn't beat it with a hammer or a stick in fury, so there should be no mechanical malfunction and apart from that, the phone and the WiFi part of the BB seems to work normally.

[Scotfan]

Thanks Cory
I haven't graduated to maps yet - at this moment I was just happy with coordinates, which my BB GPS was providing quite efficiently. Having received your reply I drove some 10 miles away from home and tried to refresh the GPS position. It didn't even try to find the satellites. Just no reaction whatsoever - it's stuck on the position I played with it at on the New Year's eve. I didn't beat it with a hammer or a stick in fury, so there should be no mechanical malfunction and apart from that, the phone and the WiFi part of the BB seems to work normally.

[thump1]

I don't have a data plan either and I can select Refresh and it always comes back within a minute with new coordinates. You do not need a data plan for the function under Tools/Advanced Options/GPS to work. I am currentally using Trekbuddy with maps downloaded to my SD Card from Google to Trekbuddy and it works great without a data plan. It doesn't give me turn by turn instructions like some of the maps programs do but it does the job.